1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to network bandwidth and more particularly relates to managing network bandwidth.
2. Description of the Related Art
Networks are increasingly important for computers. For example, many computers connect to a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) network to receive data, software updates, application software, and authorization keys. As a result, it is vital to a computer have access to sufficient TCP/IP bandwidth.
Typically a plurality of computers share access to TCP/IP network. As each computer transfers more data across the TCP/IP network, the network traffic increases and the available TCP/IP bandwidth decreases. As network traffic increases, each computer may need to wait longer to transfer data across the TCP/IP network. Thus the performance of each computer is slowed.
The need for sufficient TCP/IP bandwidth is particularly acute for diskless computers. A diskless computer may store software and data on a storage system such as a Storage Area Network (SAN). The diskless computer may load an operating system from the SAN, load application programs from the SAN, and access data from the SAN.
The loading of an operating system across the TCP/IP network requires significantly more data be transferred than for many other types of data transfer. For example, while an e-mail transaction may require the transfer of one hundred kilobytes (100 kB) of data, the loading of an operating system may require the transfer of hundreds of megabytes (MB) of data.
When network utilization is high, data transfers are substantially slowed. As a result, the performance of the diskless computer may be significantly impaired.